Although mind-wandering during silent reading is well documented, to date no research has investigated whether similar processes occur during reading aloud. In the current study, participants read a passage either silently or aloud while periodically being probed about mind-wandering. Although comprehension accuracy was similar for both reading conditions, participants reported more mind-wandering while reading aloud. These episodes of mindless reading were associated with nearly normal prosody, but were nevertheless distinguished by subtle fluctuations in volume that were predictive of both overall comprehension accuracy and individual sentence comprehension. Together these findings reveal that previously hidden within the common activity of reading aloud lies: 1) a demonstration of the remarkable automaticity of speech, 2) a situation that is surprisingly conducive to mind-wandering, 3) subtle vocal signatures of mind-wandering and comprehension accuracy, and 4) the promise of developing useful interventions to improve reading.